SCIENCE OF THE MONTH : AUGUST 2013

1 August 2013: India's advanced weather satellite Insat-3D, launched on July 26 from Kourou, French Guyana, was successfully placed in a geosynchronous orbit. According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),Insat-3D moved towards its final geostationary orbital location of 82 degree East longitude and on August 6, 2013 reached this destination. Subsequently, the two meteorological payloads (Imaging System, Atmospheric Sounder), as well as the two Transponders (designed for the Meteorological Data Relay and Satellite-aided Search and Rescue system) will be activated by August 8, 2013. Before reaching the 36,000km orbit, the satellite was at the farthest distance of 35,799km from Earth. Link: http://www.isro.org

2 August  2013: A corner of west London saw a culinary and scientific history made today when scientists cook and serve up the world's first lab-grown beef burger.The in-vitro burger, cultured from cattle stem cells, was the result of years of research by Dutch scientist Mark Post from University of Maastricht, who is working to show how in-vitro meat might one day be a true alternative to meat from livestock. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), annual meat production is projected to rise to 376 million tonnes by 2030 suggesting demand for meat is will be increasing by more than two-thirds by 2050. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has welcomed the arrival of cultured in-vitro meat. Link: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl

3 August  2013: Twelve new crop varieties were released to farmers by the Kerala Agricultural University ( KAU). The new varieties include one each of rice, coconut, snake gourd, chilli, ginger and two varieties each of tomato and pepper. The rice variety, Ezhome-3, has been found to be tolerant to salinity, while Keramadhura is a green dwarf coconut variety preferred for tender nuts. Panniyur 8i, a pepper variety, is tolerant to drought and quick wilt disease. Among other varieties are Manulakshmy, a large size tomato resistant to bacterial wilt; Vellayani Thejus, a shade tolerant variety of chilly; and Aiswarya, a variety of fodder cowpea. The new crop varieties add to the 271 varieties of various crops developed by the varsity. Link: http://www.kau.edu

4 August  2013: Vietnam has launched a micro-satellite to the International Space Station (ISS). The micro-satellite Pico Dragon, together with three other such satellites of the US, was shipped to ISS by Japan's Kounotori-4 (HTV-4) cargo spacecraft. The two-stage H-2B rocket carrying the HTV-4 ship lifted today, initiating a five-day journey to the habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. Pico Dragon is programmed to capture images of the earth, collect space environment data and test communication systems.The satellite is planned to stay at the ISS for 2-3 months before going into space. In May 2013, Vietnam's first remote sensing satellite,VNREDSat-1,was launched into orbit from French Guiana. Link: http://space.skyrocket.de

5 August  2013: NASA's Curiosity rover marked one year on Mars today and has already achieved its main science goal of revealing ancient Mars could have supported life. After inspiring millions of people worldwide with its successful landing in a crater on the Red Planet on Aug. 5, 2012. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft placed Curiosity on Mars near the base of Mount Sharp. The mountain has exposed geological layers, including ones identified by Mars orbiters as originating in a wet environment. NASA's next mission to Mars, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), is being prepared for launch in November 2013 to study the nature and processes in the upper atmosphere of Mars. Link: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov

6 August  2013: Today marked the 68^th anniversary of the dropping of the Atomic Bomb 'Little Boy' over the city of Hiroshima in western Japan and three days later in Nagasaki. Japan still has more than 200,000 hibakusha, as the survivors of the atomic bombings are known. A peace bell was struck at 8:15 a.m. today, the moment the ‘Little Boy’ bomb was dropped on Hiroshima from a Boeing B-29 Superfortress on Aug. 6, 1945. However, 68 years later after the event and World War II, Japan is considering revising its pacifist Constitution, the Article 9 of which states that "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes." Link: http://www.youtube.com

7 August  2013: Europa, the sixth closest moon of Jupiter is the most likely place in our solar system beyond Earth to have life, according to NASA. Most of what scientists know of Jupiter's moon Europa they have learned from a dozen or so close flybys from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1979 and NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the mid-to-late 1990s, researchers said.Europa is the most likely place in our solar system beyond Earth to have life today, and a landed mission would be the best way to search for signs of life, according Robert Pappalardo, the study's lead author, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. NASA is planning to collect more improved images of Europa, nowadays. Link: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov

8 August  2013: Scientists have completed the genome sequencing and analysis of the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis). With less than 100 of these animals in the wild, the Chinese alligator is critically endangered. The researchers collected samples from the Changxing Yinjiabian Nature Reserve and sequenced the genome using a shotgun strategy. The result shows that although it has a total of 22,200 genes, the Chinese alligator has no Sex Chromosome in its genome. Instead, the Chinese alligator exhibits Temperature-dependent Sex Determination (TSD). This makes the Chinese alligator, the first TSD species whose genome has been sequenced. The findings are published in the journal Cell Research. Link: http://www.nature.com

9 August  2013: The US patent office has granted patent to a new vaccine adjuvant extracted from 'Ashwagandha', also known as Indian Ginseng, a medicinal plant used in Ayurveda as an immunity enhancer. Government of India's Department of science and technology (DST) had sponsored the research project which was jointly executed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and University of Pune's Inter-disciplinary School of Health Sciences (ISHS). The concept of rasayana in Ayurveda is based on modulation of immune response to provide better immunity. The adjuvant is also said to be applicable for vaccines against Meningitis,Polio, Hepatitis and holds promise against HIV and malaria. Link: http://www.unipune.ac.in

10 August  2013: India's caste system began about 2,000 years ago, says a new genetic study. The study was carried out by Harvard Medical School and the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad.The study adds that people from the North and the South, began to mix with each other about 4,200 years ago but that the mixing stopped about 2,000 years ago.David Reich from Harvard Medical School, found that all populations in India underwent genetic mixing of two ancestral groups: the Ancestral North Indians (ANI), who are related to central Asians, middle Easterners, Caucasians, and Europeans and the Ancestral South Indians (ASI), who are primarily from the Indian subcontinent. Link: http://genetics.med.harvard.edu

11 August  2013: NASA's only identical twin astronauts are planning to serve as guinea pigs for studies investigating the genetic impacts of long-duration spaceflight. Astronaut Mark Kelly is set to be a test subject on Earth, while his twin brother Scott Kelly is preparing for a year-long mission aboard the International Space Station. Scott Kelly's journey is also peculiar in the sense that it will be the longest single spaceflight NASA has ever attempted. Scott Kelly is a veteran of two shuttle missions and previously served as a space station crew member and commander. Scientists would be looking for genetic differences in the twins due to one brother living in the gravity-free environment of space and the other on Earth. Link:http://www.jsc.nasa.gov

12 August  2013: Researchers at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History have discovered a new mammal species which is named as ‘Olinguito’. For years, the creature was mistaken as an Olingo, a member of the Raccoon family that typically lives at lower elevations. However, Olinguito’ spends most of its time at high elevations, living in the dense fog of the Andean cloud forests. It was Kristofer M. Helgen,  a Smithsonian zoologist who proved that the Olinguito is a totally different creature. This made Olinguito is the first new carnivorous mammal species to be discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. The name Olinguito in Spanish means “little Olingo.” The finding is published in the journal ZooKeys. Link: http://www.pensoft.net

13 August  2013: According Mars One, the non-profit organization which aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars in 2023, nearly 1,800 Indians want to settle down on the Red Planet permanently. Mars One, founded in 2011, intends to fund the endeavour from launch to landing to living on Mars. The team of settlers will be selected from applicants registered on the company's website, and a $7 fee is the only investment involved as of now. Anyone above 18 can apply, the main criteria being psychological stability. The final round will be over in 2014, crew training will start in 2015, launching of two rovers in 2018, an all-cargo mission in 2020 and the first one-way, non-return human flight in 2022. Link:http://www.mars-one.com

14 August  2013: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is inviting public to suggest names for the newly discovered planets, stars and other celestial bodies. International Astronomical Union, the Paris-based organisation is the de facto authority in the field has more than 11,000 members in more than 90 countries.The proposed name should be 16 characters or less in length, preferably one word, pronounceable in as many languages as possible and non-offensive in any language or culture. The name should not be too similar to an existing name of an astronomical object. The organization discourages names of commercial nature. The submissions can be sent to the email address: iaupublic@iap.fr Link: http://www.iau.org

15 August  2013: NASA's Juno spacecraft has reached halfway to Jupiter, touching a milestone in its five-year voyage to our solar system's largest planet. Juno mission was launched on August 5, 2011. Juno is now 9.464 astronomical units away from Earth. Astronomical unit (AU) is a unit of measure, which is the distance between Earth and the Sun and is 149,597,870.7 kilometres long. The 9.464 astronomical units Juno has already travelled (or still has left to go) is equivalent to 1,415,794,248 kilometres. The next milestone in the nearly five-year journey to Jupiter will occur this October, when the spacecraft flies past Earth in search of a little extra speed with gravity-assist. Juno will arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Link: http://www.nasa.gov

16 August  2013: A team of eminent doctors at from the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) and scientists from the Centre for the Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) along with international researchers have discovered the genetic causes for chronic pancreatitis in Indian populations. Pancreatitis refers to the inflammation of the pancreas. The decade-long research by involved the genetic analysis of 300 patients from Europe and Asia  who were suffering from Tropical Calcific Pancreatitis, largely found in populations in South India. The research team identified the mutation in the carboxypeptidase A1, making the enzyme function-less.Their findings are published in the journal Natural Genetics. Link: http://www.nature.com

17 August  2013: Researchers at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study and Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands have discovered a new type of ice that forms between the layers of graphene oxide. Bilayer ice is a recently discovered, new type of ice that can only form in very special conditions.The limited separation between the stack layers prevents ordinary 3D ice from forming. In contrast to ordinary hexagonal ice (Ih), out-of-plane hydrogen atoms in the water molecules in the second ice bilayer appear to 'point' themselves in the direction of the first layer - an unusual situation that produces a structure that is rather suppler than that of the original Ih ice. This makes a very special kind of water permeation.Link: http://post.jagran.com 

18 August  2013: Scientists have discovered a vast plume of iron and other micronutrients more than 1,000 km long billowing from hydrothermal vents in the South Atlantic Ocean, compelling scientists to believe that world’s oceans can be sources of iron. The team was led by Mak Saito who set sail aboard the R/V Knorr in 2007 in the South Atlantic as part of the ‘Cobalt, Iron and Micro-organisms from the Upwelling zone to the Gyre’ (CoFeMUG, pronounced as  "coffee mug") expedition, which intended to map chemical composition and microbial life along the ship's route between Brazil and Namibia. The finding, calls past estimates of iron abundances into question, and may challenge researchers' assumptions about iron sources in the world's seas. The study is published in Nature Geoscience. Link: http://cis.whoi.edu
 
19 August  2013: Today was the World Photography Day, a day dedicated to honour the artists that are constantly in pursuit of immortalizing those precious moments that seem to pass us by in a jiffy. It was on this day the French Academy of Sciences allowed the Daguerre type Process to be known to the world.The process enabled the capturing an image using a camera obscura onto a light sensitive Silver Iodide plate had been invented by Joseph Nicèphore Nièpce and Louis Daguerre. However, it was actually an Australian photographer named Korske Ara who in 2009, tried to get a day dedicated to this, which was officially recognized in 2010. Link: http://www.worldphotoday.org
 
20 August  2013: The first private butterfly park of the Karnataka and the second one in India, was inaugurated today at Beluvai. The park developed by Sammilan Shetty is located in Kanthavara forest at the foothills of the Western Ghats. Sammilan Shetty has developed the park on about 7.35 acres of land owned by him. He has been planting various host plants of butterflies at the park since 2011 to attract the winged beauties. At present, the park has about 113 species of butterflies. The presence of butterflies is an indicator that the place is free from pollution. If they disappear, it indicate that the place has been polluted. Sammilan's park is the second privately-owned butterfly park in India. The first one is located in Mumbai. Link: http://www.butterflyparkbelvai.com

21 August  2013: "Ananthatthe Arinja Aal", the Malayalam translation of the legendary Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan’s biography by the Robert Kanigel was released by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today. "The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan" by Robert Kanigel was first published in 1991.It was translated under a joint project of Srinivasa Ramanujan Institute of Basic Sciences (SRIBS) an initiative of the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) and State Institute of Languages with support from the Ramanujan Mathematical Society. This is the second translation of Kanigel's book in an Indian language, the first being in Tamil. Link: http://www.kscste.kerala.gov.in

22 August  2013: Genome researchers from Bielefeld University's Center for Biotechnology headed by Professor Dr. Alfred Pühler have succeeded in sequencing the genome of the Chinese hamster. The Chinese hamster supplies the cell cultures used by the pharmaceutical industry to produce biopharmaceutical products such as antibodies used in medicine. Decoding of the genome of the Chinese hamster that has eleven pairs of chromosomes generated large datasets. With approximately 2.3 billion bases, the magnitude of the genome of the Chinese hamster is comparable to that of the human genome.The researchers have now published their results in the internationally scientific journal Nature Biotechnology. Link: http://www.nature.com

23 August  2013: Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin district is technically an ideal location for a rocket launcch-pad to be used in space missions provided other requirements are also met, according to Indian space scientists. Tuticorin will be ideal for putting satellites in polar orbit normally undertaken through ISRO's polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV). But, in the case of the GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicl), it is not possible, as the first stage/engine after it burns out may fall on Sri Lanka or in its maritime waters. Tamil Nadu can become a hotspot for the Indian space programme if as per Karunanidhi's demands, a Rocket Launch-pad and an Aerospace and Propulsion Technology Institute is set up in the state. Link: http://www.isro.gov.in

24 August  2013: Anita Sengupta, an Indian-born aerospace scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory opines that a human mission to Mars was likely to materialize anytime in five to 15 years from now. Sengupta had an important role to play in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) team which landed car sized robotic rover 'Curiosity,' on Mars on August 5, 2012 to explore Gale crater, after a little over an eight month travel since its launch in November 2011. Sengupta presently works with the Cold Atom Laboratory Mission, an ultra-cold quantum gas experiment to be launched to the International Space Station in 2016. Cold Atom Laboratory Mission intend to create the coldest spot of the universe through the creation of 'Bose-Einstein Condensate’, the state of matter named after Einstein and Satyendra Nath Bose. Link: https://people.nasa.gov

25 August  2013: NASA is making final preparations to launch a small car-sized robotic Moon probe next month in an attempt to answer prevailing questions about the lunar atmosphere. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will be launched on September 6. LADEE will orbit the Moon to gather detailed information about lunar atmosphere and detect whether dust is being lofted into the lunar sky. The mission has many firsts, including the first flight of the Minotaur V rocket, testing of a high-data-rate laser communication system, and the first launch beyond Earth orbit from the agency's Virginia Space Coast launch facility. Minotaur V rocket, is a ballistic missile converted into a launch vehicle. Link: http://www.nasa.gov

26 August  2013: NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope marked its 10th anniversary in space, today. The Spitzer, which is an infrared telescope, was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 25, 2003. Part of NASA’s Great Observatories Program of four telescopes, Spitzer studied cometsm asteroids and discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Initially the telescope was called Space Infrared Telescope Facility, but was renamed Spitzer in tribute to the American astronomer Lyman Spitzer, after it reached space.The other Great Observatories are the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (which is no longer operating out of the four). Link: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu
 
27 August  2013: India's ambitious and largest science research project to study atmospheric neutrinos in a deep underground cave is gradually taking shape at Pottipuram village near Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The site in West Bodi Hills near Madurai was not DAE's first choice for the project. Though it chose Singara near Nilgris, the environment ministry had objected to the idea, since it was within an elephant corridor. Christened 'India-based Neutrino Observatory' by the department of atomic energy (DAE), will study atmospheric neutrinos 1,300 metres below ground and is expected to provide precise measurement of neutrino mixing parameters. The total project cost is estimated at Rs 1,500 crore. Link: http://www.ino.tifr.res.in
 
28 August  2013: Scientists using a NASA instrument aboard the ill-fated lunar probe, have discovered signs of water native to the moon. The work is one of the findings to come out of India's 2008 Chandrayaan-1 probe, which survived 312 days of its planned two-year mission.Using data from Chandrayaan's 'Moon Mineralogy Mapper', researchers discovered an abundance of hydroxyl in the Bullialdus crater. The crater Bullialdus, near to moon’s equator is with unusual chemical diversity and it sits in the Mare Nubium, a lunar plain that was probably carved out by a major impact. The results offer further evidence that the moon has its own indigenous source of water. published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Link: http://www.nature.com
 
29 August  2013: Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM), India’s first science museum in Calcutta  launched its ‘Innovation Hub’ today which is the country’s first first science hub in a science museum.BITM is the first science museum in India, set up under the aegis of National Council of Science Museums, under the ministry of culture.Equipped with a cutting-edge ‘Robotics and Microprocessing Facility’ to further projects in practical applications of robotics and microprocessing, the centre also has multimedia kiosks that relate stories of inventors and their contributions. Outfitted with a ‘Innovation Resource Centre’ that provides e-journals is open to students on a membership basis. Link: http://www.bitmcal.org
 
30 August  2013: India's first dedicated military satellite GSAT-7 or "Rukmini", was launched by Arianespace from French Guiana on today. It will provide the Navy with an almost 2,000-nautical-mile-footprint over the critical Indian Ocean region (IOR). Essentially a geo-stationary communication satellite GSAT-7 would enable real-time networking of all Indian warships, submarines and aircraft with operational centres ashore.It will also help the Navy keep a hawk-eye over both Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. GSAT-7 will be followed by GSAT-7A which will be shared by Indian Air Force and Army. Around 300 military satellites are orbiting earth, with the US owning 50% of them, followed by Russia and China. Link: http://www.isro.org
 
31 August  2013: The flight-test of GSLV with indigenous cryogenic engine, called off ten days ago following a leak in the second stage of the rocket, is now expected to take place only in December, according to Indian Space Research Organisation.The launch of the GSLV-D5, scheduled for 1650 hrs on August 19 from the Sriharikota spaceport was called off, as a leak was observed in the UH25 fuel system of the second stage during the pre-launch pressurisation phase on the vehicle just two hours before the scheduled lift-off. The de-stacked rocket and the second stage will be shifted to Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu, for an investigation into the cause of the leakage. Link: http://www.isro.gov.in

MOVIE OF THE MONTH : AUGUST 2013

                                                            

Director: Edgar Wright
Story: Edgar Wright
Camera: Bill Pope
Studio: Relativity Media
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Running time: 109 minutes

The title The World’s End denotes two things: the terrible, horrible demise of humankind and the English suburban pub where a man named Gary plans to conclude a twelve-pub (one pint per establishment) odyssey in triumph. The aim is to go back to his hometown of Newton Haven and commemorate a similar, aborted trek that happened twenty-odd years ago, when Gary and four mates were boisterous punks on the brink of manhood. 

The others, Andy, Steven, Oliver, and Peter have careers and families, but for Gary, the manhood thing hasn’t quite worked out. Drinking his way to the World’s End will be his revolt against time and soul-draining conformity, a ringing declaration of existential freedom though somewhat undermined by his childlike self-centeredness and raging alcoholism.

Gary would be a pathetic figure, a doomed con man in the age of Eugene O’Neill, AA-bound in our therapeutic era, if The World’s End were directed by anyone other than Edgar Wright. For Wright, Gary is a peculiar combination of right and wrong. Mostly wrong but tilting toward wrightness, I mean, rightness — insofar as he susses out sinister changes in old Newton Haven. He’s a funny combination of wanker and warrior. Uproarious, in fact.

This review originally ran in the August 19, 2013 issue of New York Magazine.

Link: http://www.vulture.com

BOOK OF THE MONTH : AUGUST 2013

Title        : Hello, I'm Panda
Author    : Tan Kai
Publisher: ChinaSichuan 
                 Children's Publishing House

Hello, I'm Panda tells the little- known stories about Giant Panda with a unique point of view. This book describes the survival history of Giant Panda, the relationship between human being and Panda vividly. It also contains latest achievement of scientific research on Giant Panda.

The author Tan Kai is the executive editor of Bilingual magazine Giant Panda. He has traveled all nature reserves of Giant Panda within 32 years. He conducted deep research on the panda culture and published many literary works about Panda. So, he is given the name of the “Panda writer”.

Hello, I'm Panda will be hardcover in 16-open, about 35000 words of interesting stories. It contains more than 200 precious pictures, which are composed of both old pictures of high historic value and excellent photographs nowadays. Hello, I'm Panda is pleasant to read and beautiful to watch. They are not only stories with humanistic touch, but it is also a special children’s science book.

From the Foreword

Dear Friends:

Hello, I’m a panda. Outside the tree holes is a large, dark forest. I can hear the rhythm of the autumn rain. I’ve enjoyed a nice meal. How warm and safe I feel in my mother’s arms! However, mom has no time to rest. She uses her body to block the cold wind blowing from the tree holes. She is sitting upright and constant licking my little body. Mom always tends to me as I cry. I know she wants me to be more comfortable.

What do I see in the darkness?

It’s my mother’s sparkling eyes!Her eyes are the eyes of love. Mom has not had anything to eat or drink for more than ten days. She hugs me in her arms and looks at me every minute. “My cute baby”, I know she is saying in her heart.

These are tired eyes, wanting to close at any time. But the power of love makes them remain open and hold on.
These are also melancholy eyes, like the light of Polaris above the winter night sky I used to see when growing up —— cold and distant! Besides the delivery room in the rock pit, tree holes in the large forest, the breeding delivery room located in Wolong and Chengdu, and even in the world famous zoo, as long as you quietly approach the mother panda at night, you will always see tired, melancholy eyes!

Dear friends, can you understand the meaning of mother panda's melancholy eyes? When I was growing up, I learned that mom’s melancholy eyes brought forth 8,000,000 years of family history.
They show a deep worry for the Earth's current situation, and its future! However, I also want to tell you, my dear friends:
8,000,000 years! How many disasters and pains have we suffered during that time? We wouldn't be here today without the tenacity of mother pandas for countless generations.

Our family has a complicated history of human interaction.
In the past, human beings killed us just because of curiosity, or to occupy our homeland for their own needs. However, now our species is highly protected. People have created large nature reserves for us to live, and there are generations of scientists who research the secrets of our fertility and reproduction, in order to expand our numbers. This work will bring our family back.

Our family has been around for 8 million years. How many secrets we have! Why are panda cubs so tiny, weighing a mere 150 grams, which is only 1/900 of the mother panda? Why do we have short lives when there is no "green milk" like the water inside of vegetables? Why are we called the “flagship” of the animal world? Is it an undeserved fame? Why are we called the “living fossil”? Why are we granted the title “hermit of the bamboo forest”?
Why? ...

Chapters

I’m the NO.1 star in animal world
Let’s start with the “Ailuaractos lufengensis” living in 8000 thousand years ago
The airwaves uncovers the mystery of the “Bamboo Hermit”
Baby, marriage and fertility
in situ and ex situ conservation
Earthquake tearing protection area

Review Courtesy: http://www.inbooker.com

EVENT OF THE MONTH : AUGUST 2013

A NEW HOME FOR BUTTERFLIES

The second Butterfly Park in India was inaugurated in Beluvi, Karnataka.  It is is the first private Butterfly Park in Karnataka, developed by Sammilan Shetty which is located at Kanthavara forest, at the foothills of the Western Ghats. 

Sammilan has developed the park on about 7.35 acres of land owned by him at an estimated cost of Rs 5 lakh. He has been planting various host plants of butterflies at the park since 2011 to attract the winged beauties. At present, the park has about 113 species of butterflies.

Sammilan's park is the second privately-owned butterfly park in India. The first one is located in Mumbai. India is home to about 1500 species of butterflies. Butterflies are very sensitive. Presence of different varieties of butterflies at a place is an indicator that the place is free from pollution. 

Website: http://www.butterflyparkbelvai.com

SPECIES OF THE MONTH: AUGUST 2013

IT'S BRAND NEW, NEW MAMMALIAN!

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum   : Chordata
Class       : Mammalia
Order     : Carnivora
Family    : Procyonidae
Genus     : Bassaricyon
Species   : Bassaricyon neblina

“At the Chicago Field Museum, I pulled out a drawer, and there were these stunning, reddish-brown long-furred skins. They stopped me in my tracks, they weren't like any olingo that had been seen or described anywhere. The known species of olingo have short, gray fur."

This is how Smithsonian researcher Kristofer Helgen describes a new mammal species in Smithsonian magazine. Researchers spent the several years conducting DNA tests and studying Olingos and their relatives in the rain forests of Ecuador and Colombia. The team found that the Olinguito  (pronounced oh-lin-GHEE-toe) is in fact a distinct species from the Olingo.

Helgan and his team had presented their finding in the journal ZooKeys. The raccoon-like carnivores live in the trees of the cloud forests of the Andes. They eat mostly fruit, are nocturnal and have one young at a time. Their reddish fur and smaller bodies distinguish them from Olingos.

Although rarely seen, the Olinguito is not considered to be endangered. However, the researchers hope that excitement about the new discovery will invigorate efforts to preserve and protect their rainforest habitat.

News Courtesy: http://www.treehugger.com
Link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com

SCIENCE OF THE MONTH: JULY 2013

                                                     

1 July  2013: Giving a big boost to vanishing tigers, the Maharashtra government approved the Koka Wildlife Sanctuary, 20km from Bhandara. The 92.34 sq km protected area is hardly 10km from New Nagzira and Nagzira wildlife sanctuaries and will act as a gene pool for tigers and wildlife. The proposed sanctuary includes 29 compartments with a total sanctuary area comes to 92.34 sq km. Koka has huge potential for sustaining flagship species such as tigers and panthers. The sanctuary will be an extension of already existing New Nagzira and Nagzira wildlife sanctuaries. In future, the area will be treated as buffer zone of proposed Nagzira-Navegoan Tiger Reserve. Link: http://www.nagzira.com

2 July 2013: Today's midnight launch of IRNSS-1 A (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System),will enable India to have its own navigational satellite and its own GPS technology. The satellite is one of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS network which will also provide better disaster management. It was launched from Sriharikota by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL) which is a four-stage rocket powered by solid fuel (Hydroxyl-terminated-poly-butadiene) and liquid propellants (unsymmetrical Dimethyl-hydrazine-hydrate and 25 percent of Nitrogen tetroxide for second stage and Mono-methyl-hydrazine and mixed Oxide Nitrogen for fourth stage. Link: http://www.isro.org

3 July 2013: Researchers at the Institute de Biologia Evolutiva in Spain have made the most comprehensive catalogue of great-ape genome diversity ever, offering insight into the primate evolution. The catalogue shows chimpanzees are much more genetically complex than humans. Researchers sequenced a total of 79 great apes, including Chimpanzees, Bonobos, Gorillas and Orangutans, as well as seven apes. Chimpanzees and Bonobos remain humans' closest living relatives, splitting off from humanity about 5 million years ago. The findings also settle a hot debate over the relationships among the four chimpanzee subspecies. The new findings don't change man's position in the evolutionary history of mankind involving primates. Link: http://www.ibe.upf-csic.es

4 July  2013: Researchers from the University of Leeds, UK, have found that in the last decade, the Earth's spin has missed a beat, three times. These seemingly random blips cause days to temporarily stretch and shrink. Richard Holme of the University of Liverpool, UK, looked at 50 years of GPS and astronomical data to find out that in recent years our planet's spin has stuttered three times,in 2003, 2004, and 2007. The jumps interrupt the longer-term changes by a fraction of a millisecond, and last several months before going back to normal. The researchers from the University of Leeds says that we need to rethink the dynamics of the Earth's core in the light of these new findings regarding Earth's spin.This article was published in Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com

5 July 2013: Green Chemistry was this year's theme at the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting which was concluded in Lake Constance, the picturesque town on Germany. Under graduate and post graduate students - from 80 countries participated with 35 scientists, all Nobel Prize winners. Lake Constance hosted 22 students from India, sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology and the DFG (German Research Foundation). Lindau meet addressed and discussed renewable energy sources - solar cells, photosynthesis, photobiological hydrogen production and catalytic production of renewable fuels. And other topics like Climate change. Link: http://www.lindau-nobel.org

6 July  2013: 'Team Rat', a 25-member international team of scientists have braved harsh Antarctic conditions of South Georgia to get rid off rats that were wiping out rare bird populations. South Georgia is one of the world's last great wilderness areas and amongst the wildlife on the island are 90% of the world's Antarctic fur seals and half the world's elephant seals. Four species of penguins nest on the island, including King Penguins with around 400,000 breeding pairs. The team led by professor Tony Martin, made 1,000 flights over the Antarctic island to bait 70% of the island's rat-infested areas, five times larger than any other rodent eradication project ever undertaken. Link: http://www.sght.org

7 July  2013: Today marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s Mars rover, Opportunity, which was launched on July 7, 2003. Opportunity landed on Mars' Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin Spirit (MER-A), also part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, touched down on the other side of the planet. While Spirit became immobile in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, Opportunity remains active as of 2013, having already exceeded its planned activity by 9 years, 95 days (in Earth time). Mission highlights included finding extramartian meteorites such as Meridiani Planum, and over two years studying Victoria crater. It reached Endeavour crater in 2011.Link: http://science.nasa.gov

8 July  2013: Yahoo which now owns AltaVista, the first searchable, full-text database of a large part of the World Wide Web, decided to close it, today. AltaVista was founded in 1995 by Digital Equipment Corporation.It was once one of the most popular search engines, but it lost ground with the rise of Google and was purchased in 2003 by Yahoo!, which retained the brand but based all AltaVista searches on its own search engine. AltaVista was publicly launched on December 15, 1995. It was based on the original idea of Paul Flaherty, a researcher at Digital Equipment Corporation. The name AltaVista was chosen in relation to the surroundings of their company at Palo Alto. Link: http://www.altavista.com

9 July  2013: A baby boy has been born to a couple in the USA through a revolutionary IVF technique, that enables doctors to detect chromosome defects, even at womb. The technique, developed by British scientists from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre will tremendously help in improving the success rate of IVF cycles. Until recently, such abnormalities have been hard to detect as they do not affect the appearance of embryos under the microscope. The new approach can identify embryos with the correct number of chromosomes and may cut the cost of embryo screening. It also improves IVF success rates by around 30%. Link: http://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk

10 July  2013: Death Valley's record temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degrees Celsius), the hottest ever measured on Earth, was set exactly 100 years ago today. For decades, scientists debated whether El Azizia, Libya, or the Death Valley in eastern California desert had the definitive claim to the hottest place on Earth. An international meteorology committee was tasked with investigating the competing claims, but their efforts were disrupted by a revolution in Libya. In 2011, the Libyan scientist, Kahlid Ibrahim El Fadli's measurement declared Death Valley as the hottest-known place on Earth, with the record-setting temperature, marked on July 10, 1913. Link: http://www.pbs.org

11 July  2013: French researchers have made a new type of atomic clock that can measure time more accurately. The new device called Optical Lattice Clock, would only lose just one second in every 300 million years.Currently, atomic clocks are used to count the seconds, but the new clocks proved to be more precise in tests and offered a better system for defining the second. Just as a clock uses the swing of a pendulum to measure intervals of time, an atomic clock uses the "vibrations" of atoms to measure time. In earlier atomic clocks, microwaves were used to make the atoms oscillate. But in the new ones, light is used. The finding is published in Nature Communications. Link: http://www.nature.com

12 July  2013: Scientists have discovered a second 'blue planet' in the Universe, although this one is decidedly inhospitable and unlikely to support life. "Blue Planet" is the nickname of Earth as it appers blue in photographs taken from space. Planet HD 189733b lies some 63 light years beyond our Solar System in the constellation Vulpecula. It has a deep cobalt blue colour according to data gathered by the Hubble space telescope, but its azure hue is not due to water but drops of liquid glass. It is the first time that scientists have been able to calculate the visible colour of an "exoplanet" beyond our own Solar System. The planet is a gas giant with temperatures 1,000C or higher. Link: http://iopscience.iop.org

13 July  2013: The US military has unveiled one of its most-advanced humanoid robots known as Atlas, which was created to assist in future emergency situations. The 1.9-meter tall, 150-kg Atlas robot, built by Boston Dynamics, is funded by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).The Atlas also boasts 28 hydraulically-actuated degrees of freedom, two hands, arms, legs, feet as well as an articulated sensor head that employs laser beams to measure distances. DARPA also wants to demonstrate that robots can be made to use tools from screwdrivers to fire trucks, and that robots can be supervised by people who aren't trained to operate robots. Link: http://www.darpa.mil

14 July  2013: In a world first, Japanese scientists have grown human liver tissue from stem cells, paving way for alleviating the critical shortage of donor organs. Takanori Takebe and Hideki Taniguchi at Yokohama City University showed the generation of vascularised and functional human liver from human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (hiPSCs) by transplantation of in vitro grown liver buds. The study demonstrates a proof-of-concept that organ bud transplantation offers an alternative approach for treating organ failure by generating artificial organ and also that liver bud formation can be mimicked in vitro. The study was published in the journal Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com

15 July  2013: The Hubble space telescope has discovered a new moon orbiting Neptune, NASA has confirmed. Designated S/2004 N 1, this is the 14th known moon to circle the giant planet. It also appears to be the smallest moon in the Neptunian system, measuring just 20 km across, completing one revolution around Neptune every 23 hours. It is so small that the Voyager spacecraft failed to spot it in 1989 when it passed close by Neptune and surveyed the planet's system of moons and rings. It was discovered by US astronomer Mark Showalter while studying rings around Neptune.The new Neptunian moon is roughly 100 million times dimmer than the faintest star. Link: http://hubblesite.org

16 July  2013: A satellite has detected that 300 billion tonnes of ice is being lost every year from the Antarctic and Greenland glaciers, dramatically increasing sea levels around the world. The satellite that detected the melting is Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). Dr Bert Wouters and his team compared nine years of satellite data from the GRACE mission with reconstructions of about 50 years of mass changes to the ice sheets. The findings underscore the need for continuous satellite monitoring of the ice sheets to better identify and predict melting and the corresponding sea-level rise. The study is published in Nature Geoscience. Link: http://www.csr.utexas.edu

17 July  2013: Wild life Conservation and Agro- Rural Development Foundation, a voluntary organisation and International Veterinary Students' Association (India) have started a councelling centre in Nagpur for veterinary students with the aim of helping bright students from poor families. The center will help the students with processes like international education, training, research, scholarships and fellowships, passport and visa, reference letter and so on. This year, five students of Nagpur Veterinary College have been sent to USA for their higher education. Students who want help can contact indiaivsa@gmail.com or ivsaindia@hotmail.com. Link: http://ivsa.org

18 July  2013: Scientists from Aix-Marseille University in France, have discovered the largest viruses ever discovered, called Pandoraviruses. The name comes from the myth of the 'Pandora's Box'. The virus was first discovered by Dr. Jean-Michel Claverie from sediment off the coast of Las Cruces, Chile. Second virus of the same kind was found by the scientists in a pond in Melbourne, Australia. The strain found in Chile is called Pandoravirus salinus while that found in Australia is called Pandoravirus dulcis. The new giant viruses are visible with light microscope, being a full micrometer while typical viruses are maybe 20 to 300 nanometers. The study is published in Science. Link: http://www.sciencemag.org

19 July  2013: An international team of scientists has discovered a new class of white blood cells that play a critical role as the first line of defense against harmful microbial infections. The discovery of these white blood cells, found in human lung and gut tissues, may lead to better design of vaccines and targeted immuno-therapies for dieseases such as pneumonia caused by infectious microbes. T cells are immune cells that circulate around our bodies to scan for cellular abnormalities and infections.The scientists identified a new subset of DCs (named CD11b+ DCs), which are essential for activating this response. The study is published in the journal Immunity. Link: http://www.cell.com

20 July  2013: Biologists from the Japan’s Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute and Tübingen-based Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology have described a tiny new species of nematode from Fukushima province, Japan, and named it after the German theoretical physicist Max Planck. The new nematode, called Pristionchus maxplancki, is the first species to carry the name of the Max Planck. It is a microscopic threadworm belonging to the genus Pristionchus. The nematode Pristionchus maxplancki which is only 1 mm long, can change the shape of its mouth depending on its nourishment. The paper published in Zoological Science. Link: http://www.bioone.org

21 July 2013: European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, captured images of a gigantic coronal hole hovering over the Sun's north pole. Coronal holes are dark, low density regions of the sun's outermost atmosphere, the corona. They contain little solar material, have lower temperatures, and therefore, appear much darker than their surroundings. Coronal holes are a typical feature on the sun, though they appear at different places and at different times of the sun's activity cycle. The activity cycle is currently ramping up toward Solar Maximum, predicted for late 2013. During this portion of the cycle, the number of coronal holes decreases. Link: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov

22 July 2013: Sunetra Gupta, an India-born chemist and physicist has joined the big league of female scientists like Marie Curie in a first-of-its-kind art exhibition at the prestigious Royal Society in London.  Gupta, who was born in Kolkata and is now a professor at Oxford University, is among the "Women in Science Portrait Exhibition", the greatest female fellows of the Royal Society. Her main area of interest is the evolution of diversity in pathogens like those that are responsible for malaria, influenza and bacterial meningitis. Gupta has a parallel career as a novelist and wrote her first fiction in Bengali. She is also an accomplished translator of the poetry by Tagore. Link: http://royalsociety.org

23 July 2013: Members of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project signed a Master Agreement today to collaborate on the development of a next-generation astronomical facility. Members of the collaboration include the California Institute of Technology, University of California, the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and institutions supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Construction of TMT is planned to begin in April 2014 and TMT is scheduled to begin scientific operations in 2022 on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Link: http://www.tmt.org

24 July 2013: The genome of one of the world's key commercial crops, the oil palm, has been sequenced. The plant's oil is used in many food and household products, but has caused controversy because large areas of rainforest have been cleared to make way for plantations. Through deciphering the crop's DNA, researchers have identified the genes that could help to produce a more sustainable crop.The oil from palms has a wide variety of uses and is found in food, soaps and shampoos and biofuels. But as demand for the product has grown, rainforests, particularly those in South East Asia, have suffered. The work is published in Nature. Link: http://www.nature.com

25 July 2013: Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist and x-ray crystallographer helped discover the structure of DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid) but controversially missed out on the Nobel prize. Born on July 25, 1920 in London, Rosalind Franklin was the second child and eldest daughter of her parents who belonged to an affluent British Jewish family. Franklin's scientific work lead to X-ray diffraction images of DNA which resulted in the discovery of the DNA double helix. Besides this Franklin's studies also helped in the understand the molecular structures of RNA, viruses, coal and graphite. In April 1958, at the age of 37, Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer. Link: http://www.sdsc.edu

26 July 2013: An Ariane 5 rocket takes off at the French and European spaceport Guyana Space Centre, near Kourou in French Guiana, today. The rocket carried two satellites; Alphasat, a telecommunication satellite, and Insat-3D, a meteorological satellite, India's advanced weather satellite Insat-3D. Though it had developed some anomalies after the launch, it was corrected these immediately. The satellite has now been successfully placed in a geosynchronous orbit. According to Indian Space Research Organisation's statement, Insat-3D has moved towards its final geostationary orbit and its instruments were switched on August 8, 2013, which are running smoothly. Link: http://www.isro.org

27 July  2013: UK scientists at European Space Agency (ESA) have designed a concept mission to land astronauts on Mars by 2021 , twelve years before NASA expects to send a manned mission to the Red Planet. The plan envisages a three-person crew journeying to Mars aboard a small two-part craft. NASA says they will get on Mars at the earliest by 2033. According to professor Tom Pike, the leader of the London team, the trip would be the next major step for mankind in space and create a Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin for the 21st Century. The landing on Mars will be an extreme ride. European Space Agency's Mars landing module will approach Mars at 22530.8kph. Link: http://sci.esa.int

28 July  2013: India is in the process of increasing its presence in the Arctic and at "Himadri", India's research lab located there. Last month, India scored a major diplomatic victory by managing to swing itself a seat on the Arctic Council as a permanent observer with support from countries like Norway which are primary members. The 'Seed Vault', buried deep inside a mountain on Longyerbyen is a testament to that effort. The 'Seed Vault', consists of millions of seeds from across the world, including India, to be stored for safe-keeping should a disease or disaster strike. The brainchild of conservationist Cary Fowler, the bank was built in 2008, by the Norway. Link: http://pib.nic.in

29 July 2013: Euclid, the 1.2 metre diameter telescope being built by the European Space Agency (ESA) will map the shape, brightness and 3D distribution of galaxies and looking back over three-quarters of the history of the universe. To be launched in 2020, Euclid's 1.2 metre diameter telescope is the most ambitious mission to date to map the geometry of the universe. Scientists hope it will help solve key problems in the understanding the roles played by dark matter and dark energy. Euclid is optimised to answer one of the most important questions in modern cosmology: why is the universe expanding, rather than slowing down due to gravitational attraction. Link: http://sci.esa.int

30 July 2013: Within three years, a telescope as big as a shoe box and weighing just about two kg will be installed on the moon. The images taken by the lunar telescope will be open to all educators, researchers and the general public in a pioneering experiment to democratize access to space exploration. The world's first mission to the Moon's south pole will take place in 2016. The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) and Moon Express will be both scientific and commercial and the goal is to deliver the International Lunar Observatory (ILO) aboard a Moon Express robotic lander. The second moon mission will be to the lunar South Pole. Link: http://www.iloa.org

31 July 2013: The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is going to launch a new Supercomputer. The Supercomputer will connect all the laboratories of CSIR  located in Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Chennai, Chandigarh, and Nagpur. The Supercomputer will be located at India's first ever big data science institute, the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation in Bangalore. The supercomputer will have a speed of 360 tera flops, which will make it the fourth fastest supercomputer in the country and will deal with data intensive scientific discovery, which has come out as the fourth paradigm of science. Link: http://www.cdac.in